


Echo Beach

by lilacsigil



Category: Marvel 616
Genre: Beaches, Dolphins, Drabble Sequence, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-29 06:22:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20792066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilacsigil/pseuds/lilacsigil
Summary: A mysterious energy flare links Shay and Ling to past events.





	1. Spring

**Author's Note:**

  * For [one_of_those_crushing_scenes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/one_of_those_crushing_scenes/gifts).

"Thanks for coming with me to run the tests," Shay said, tentatively stepping onto the beach. Shay had gone with a Prince vs Louis XIV look today – but with sneakers – and Ying for Dramatic Floaty Goth. Neither was built for sand. Ying had a parasol ready in case of emergent sun but she held it like a sword. "I know 'beach' isn't your thing and the detection goggles are dorky."

"I will destroy anyone who tries to steal them," Ying replied.

"I'm more worried about being mocked for wearing giant goggles."

"I will destroy anyone who tries to mock us!" 

*

Shay laughed, and kept her arm in Ying's for balance. The goggles detected energies that could interfere with her teleportation device, but there were so many readings that it was hard to make sense of them. Unless you were trained in the Red Room to assimilate huge data sets.

They stopped at the water's edge. "Okay, looking out to sea, goggles on!"

Ying lifted the device to her eyes and settled it in place, while Shay monitored on her tablet. "You said there would be less to see away from the city, but there's a huge energy flare right there."

*

"I can touch it." Ying reached out, and Shay grabbed her hand as the energy flared visible pink. 

They were both floating in a glowing sea of light. Ying suddenly leaned over and intensely kissed Shay, breathing into her mouth, Shay was too distracted to realise what Ying was doing until she broke the kiss.

"We can breathe here!" Shay told her, though she was unsure they were actually breathing. 

"I don't like it! Time isn't moving!"

A dolphin appeared, glowing even more brightly. It swam through their joined hands and a burst of women's voices erupted in the silence.


	2. Summer

Misty and Jean ran up the beach below Danny's house. Jean was literally glowing in the warm night, so Misty could see just fine. 

"You wrecked my hair for a baby dolphin!" Misty yelled, but she wasn't mad now. She was a city girl and didn't know wildlife, but the dolphin family reunion had been awe-inspiring. 

Jean tackled Misty when they reached soft grass, holding her in place with a kiss, not her powers. "You're not scared of me."

"Your powers might have got bigger, but hey, you also used them to dry out our bikinis. You're still my Jean."

*

"You taste salty," Jean giggled. "Can't taste shark, though."

"I punched it, not bit it!" She kissed Jean back, her bionic hand in Jean's hair, since she could trust Jean wouldn't let herself be hurt. Her regular hand slipped inside Jean's bikini bottoms and the two of them moved together, finding their familiar rhythm despite the unfamiliar surroundings. 

Jean cried out, and they were floating, energy pulsing around them as Jean pulsed around Misty's fingers. Misty's bionic arm heated up, and Jean's hair looked like flames, but Misty held on until the energy exploded outwards and Jean relaxed beneath her.

*

"What was that?" Misty asked as they sank back to the grass. "Can we only have sex outdoors now?"

"In case I wreck the apartment? No, I don't think that was physical. More of a psychic flare."

Misty kept her arms around Jean. "I could feel it like I was inside your body. You felt…strong."

"You liked it?" Jean grinned. "Everyone else tells me my powers are too much."

"You've been through some crazy shit but you held on and came out stronger."

Jean stared out to sea. "Yeah. And we saved that dolphin family. That's got to count, right?"


	3. Fall

Bobbi jogged along the path past the rich people's beach houses. Most of the beach here had been washed away in storms and the tide lapped close to the manicured lawns. The strong winds made it depressing this time of year, so it was ideal for Bobbi to take a break and check her dead drop. 

The track went uphill into a tiny park, and Bobbi stopped and stretched, kicking the fallen leaves until she saw the discarded coffee cup she was seeking. Sticking her butt out to distract anyone watching – Hydra was easy that way – she grabbed the cup.

*

She poked out the false bottom of the cup to see a short message: look up.

"Huh?" Instead she ducked and rolled, bobbing up into…a kiss? 

Natasha was hanging by her knees from a branch, her hair blending perfectly into the red leaves, smirking at her success predicting Bobbi's reaction.

"Hey! Unfair!" Bobbi tried to sound outraged. "What's up?"

"I came for the dead drop but thought I might surprise you."

"Let no-one say you don't have a sense of humour!" 

Natasha upside-down kissed Bobbi again, handing over a printout, and exaggerated her accent. "Nyet, I am very serious spy!"

*

"Where did you get this? This chemical plume should locate the Hydra seabase! I haven't got that much information in three weeks undercover."

Natasha shrugged. "The X-Men! They said there have been 'weird energies' near this beach. Janet and I mapped their annoyingly vague information and it somehow worked."

"That sounds like them!" Bobbi memorised the co-ordinates before kissing Natasha again. "I'm out of time. Don't tell Namor about this, he'll destroy the base complete with any prisoners."

"Come back soon." Natasha touched a fingertip to her lips. "Jan misses you."

"You don't?"

"Of course not." But Natasha smiled anyway.


	4. Winter

"Where's Bobbi?" Janet shouted to Clint as she hauled him to shore. 

He was shaking too hard to say more than, "Control room," pointing downwards. 

Bobbi was still on the Hydra sub? That they just sank? Janet slapped her re-breather on and dove into the water, shrinking for maximum density. Her wings helped propel her into the depths. 

She could see the light of the doomed sub below, but the currents were strong and pulled Janet away. Small, she could move less water, but if she grew she became less dense and started to float upwards. She couldn't reach Bobbi. 

*

Something bumped Janet and she would have screamed if she could. A dolphin, glowing pink in the dark water, was beside her. Janet grabbed hold of its fin and it dove powerfully downwards. 

"Thank you!" Janet thought as hard as she could as she grabbed the jagged edge of the hole in the sub. The dolphin swam away but Janet could swear it had understood. She clambered into the flooded corridors and powered through the damaged bulkheads to an air pocket and Bobbi, who was opening the ballast tanks.

"We have to go!" Janet yelled. 

"Hydra was experimenting on dolphins!"

*

The two women opened the last of the tanks together and the young dolphins swam free. 

Bobbi quickly kissed Janet, accepting her spare rebreather. "I couldn't just leave them."

As they swam upwards through the freezing water, Janet glanced back at the sunken sub. It wasn't lit up: she couldn't see a thing down there. That weird flare of light had illuminated both the dolphin and the sub, and had kept Janet warm as she saved her girlfriend.

They breached the surface; the Quinjet had arrived. 

"Thank you," Janet said quietly, to whoever had been looking out for them.


	5. Spring

Ying and Shay floated hand-in-hand in the energy flare, but Shay was laughing now. "The original energy burst compacted time for these dolphins. Amazing!"

"Are we stuck?"

"No! Jean and Misty's dolphins can navigate this, but I don't know how, yet. The implications for my portals!"

"Implications aren't getting us out of here, Shay."

"Oh, that's easy." Shay pulled Ying sideways and suddenly they were sprawled on the beach.

Ying sighed. "I didn't know dating a physicist would get me into so much trouble."

"And out of it!" Shay kissed her girlfriend and rejoiced in their past, present and future.


End file.
